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Monday, October 29, 2012

Yesterday I had the enormous pleasure of going to Corrine's studio for some play time with other artists. It was my second time playing with Corrine and Mandy, and my first time meeting Judy, Barbara and Urvashi.

We had so much fun.

Corrine's invitation suggested we make "winter white" mail art. Apparently this color-loving group balked, and so she suggested "vintage color" instead. As it turns out, none of us could resist the lure of Corrine's vibrant paint collection, but I did manage to make a few "vintagey" collages before breaking out the aqua and orange.

I was way too busy making, talking, playing, laughing, eating, and laughing some more to remember to take pictures of this group of wonderful women and the art we all created
(Corrine has a few here)
After I got home I cut my collages into postcards.

Here are a few:

As Hurricane Sandy breathes down our neck, I'm posting fast and furiously over at Mail Me Some Art. How many videos can I post before the power goes out?

All you have to do is be part of a 2012 MMSA swap (past, present or future) and leave a comment on the giveaway post. There are still three more open swaps this year so if you haven't joined a swap yet, it's not too late. Click this link to read more abut the giveaway and help spread the word.

If you've never participated in a MMSA swap before, here's how they work:

You make something beautiful. You send it to me. I post pictures of it on the MMSA blog (with a link back to you). I mail you something beautiful that someone else made in return.

By mailing everything to me, you are guaranteed to receive something.

(I've been in swaps where I get my partner's address via email. I send off my lovingly created work of art and never get anything back. bummer! This never happens with MMSA. If you mail something, you get something.)

I will most likely take a swap hiatus after these are finished and resume in January 2013.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Yesterday I asked you which of the weekend collages was your favorite.

So many of you commented that you liked this one best:

It's one of my favorites, too, but it didn't start out that way.

This is a lesson in not giving up on things you think are ugly.

I started the postcard series with four larger collages and the plan to cut them up:

Of the four, the orange was my least favorite.

I thought I was going to love the lower left after I cut it because it has those awesome colored circles and a really cool bit of textured silvery paper.

But it just wasn't working.

I slapped down an image from an old book to act as a better focal point, and then hated it so much I tried to peel it off. It left a whole lot of papery residue behind and the card was even worse. I cut the tulip image out of a napkin, to be the replacement focal point but it was weird and didn't feel integrated. I smudged the edges of the card with a dark brown ink pad to give it a border, and I kind of liked the way the dark color highlighted some of the texture, but the overall look of the whole card was still odd.

Grasping at straws, I took my favorite circle stencil and blotted on some gesso. I had intended to add some kind of color on top of the gesso, but once it dried, I ended up liking it just the way it was. All it needed was a touch-up of the brown ink around the edges and suddenly this card that almost ended up in the trash became a favorite.